Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Help with corrupt SSD (Windows 10)

Jul 18, 2017 11:57AM PDT

Okay so I'm kinda freaking out right now. I recently bought an HP Omen 870 desktop and I bought a Samsung EVO 500 gb SSD separately. After using the PC for two days, I installed the SSD and cloned everything over from my HDD, then made the SSD my primary hard drive. I kept the HDD the way it was for backup for a few days, then once I saw that everything was running fine, I formatted my HDD so I can use it for extra storage. That was last night, and everything continued working fine, but then I booted up today and I got to the desktop, where it said that the file or drive is corrupted and unreadable. This was my C drive, so I couldn't access or use anything at all. I then decided to do a system restore (not sure if that was a good or bad idea) and it looked like it was going fine up until the end where it showed the message, "Restoration Incomplete," with no other information. In the background, there's a cmd box open that says "The system cannot find the drive specified." This is where I'm stuck right now and I don't really know what to do. Any tips on how to go about fixing this would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Re: SSD
Jul 18, 2017 12:16PM PDT

Something looks to be wrong indeed.

First, if you don't have a complete backup, see what of your own files (pics, documents, music, etc) you can copy from that SSD to the brand new external you made. That can be anything between 0 and 100% , which would mean you lose between 100 and 0%. Such happens if you don't have a backup.

Then run a chkdsk and diagnostics to see if the SSD is still functioning and reliable. If not, get a new one under warranty.
Then go back to your latest image backup or (if you don't have that) reinstall Windows and all your applications, restore your data from your backup and make that image backup to go back to when it fails again.

- Collapse -
Answer
Remember that backups are not optional.
Jul 18, 2017 12:17PM PDT

Your files are yours to keep safe. But the OS is not too hard today to reinstall even if you forgot to make restore media. Just last week I (again) made a new W10 USB install stick using Microsoft's Media Creation Kit (google that) to boot up then wipe a corrupted HDD and start fresh. A few drivers and apps and it's working again.

Cloning is usually fine but this time it didn't work out.

- Collapse -
Ideas about seeing what's on the SSD?
Jul 18, 2017 12:30PM PDT

A current Linux bootable USB/DVD/CD. No Linux learning required. Read http://tips.oncomputers.info/archives2004/0401/2004-Jan-11.htm

A W10 Recovery Console. Basic command line skills but I can boot my W10 USB stick created with the method above and open a command line to look around drives and contents. I can copy files out in a pinch.

A boot repair kit like https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/ Be sure to research what this is and it's support forum before use.

Finally there is something I can't put my finger on here. The error message reminds me of a PC the owner had been tinkering in the BIOS. For them it was a simple fix to load the BIOS defaults and it booted up. I did not bother to record before/after settings which they asked which setting it was. Sorry about that but I work a lot of machines every month. Forensics takes a back seat to getting it done.

- Collapse -
Getting a USB
Jul 18, 2017 12:41PM PDT

So should I get a USB and use the Windows tool you mentioned to reinstall Windows?

- Collapse -
I can't answer.
Jul 18, 2017 1:09PM PDT

Here at home and office we keep blank USB drives around for day to day operations. If you don't have a 4GB or larger blank drive to use with the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, then yes.

- Collapse -
Re: USB-stick
Jul 18, 2017 1:24PM PDT

If you didn't make a recovery drive) it's yes. Unless your model has a DVD burner, then you only need to buy a DVD-R or +R.

Details about the recovery drive: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/3a747883-b706-43a5-a286-9e98f886d490/create-a-recovery-drive
Note that generally you need a USB-stick of at least 8 GB for it.

We recommend making a recovery drive after you did all Windows updates and configured the system as you want it. Make a new one after each feature update (the next will be the Fall Creators Update due to appear in the fall). As Bob said: backup is not optional.

- Collapse -
Would an SD card be fine?
Jul 18, 2017 3:36PM PDT

I don't have any flash drives at home, all of mine are at school right now, but I have plenty of SD cards floating around. Can I also use that?

- Collapse -
Maybe.
Jul 18, 2017 3:47PM PDT

I have this USB to SD card adapter that makes the card look like a memory stick. if you are going to try something non-standard then accept the possibility that the result could be unknown.

- Collapse -
Maybe not.
Jul 19, 2017 12:51AM PDT

All PC's I know nowadays can boot from USB-stick. Can yours boot from an SD card?